as all things technology rallied close to the holidays, the corporate technology budget flush this year, not happening at all. tech has been getting slaughtered. is this a temporary problem or something more permanent, more persistent happening out there? perhaps being caused by the decline of the desk top? the whole tech sector needs a checkup. no better place than avnet. avnet is the ultimate thermometer around. this company i like to call the biggest supermarket of tech on earth. the distributor of electronic components and one of the largest distributors of hardware. and they preannounced on the downside, the stock just got obliterated. more important, a powerful sign of tech's weakness, and today, the company reported, and avnet missed earnings estimates by a penny, they came in light, 8.7% year over year. and avnet's guidance, better than most people expecting. what worries me, avnet's weakness didn't come from europe, it didn't come from china, where many people are worried about the slowdown. the killer region was the americas. revenues down 14%, sequentially and year over year,